“Triangle of sadness” is a disturbing movie, that’s what I was thinking over and over, while walking from the theater to home last night. Yet they received the highest honor at the movie festival in Cannes. Sorry, if you have not seen the movie, I must warn you, that my small review is a spoiler.
It was somewhat a fun movie with brilliant acting:
Woody Harrelson playing a drunken Marxist captain, Harris Dickinson playing a model man, somewhat insecure, jealous type, yet ready to sell-out if needed, his movie girlfriend played by Charlbi Dean Kriek, who was a South African actress and model (to my total shock I have read later, she actually died in New York of a sudden illness after the movie. God bless her soul)
Anyways, briefly the movie was about the crush of the yacht and survivors on the deserted island. I have seen a few movies with a similar plot, when the survivors if there were more than one, were no longer using the same hierarchy as in the civilization.
In this movie it was a maid, in her 50-s, not attractive Asian, from the yacht, who was the “toilets’ cleaning manager”, now suddenly becoming “the captain” of the island, as she proclaimed herself. She was able to dominate, submitting all the alfa males to her ruling, because she was the only one capable of catching fish with her bare hands, make a fire without a lighter, and… moreover, she even managed to split the young couple without any difficulties, just by food manipulation and having herself the young model stud. He had to pleasure “the captain lady” just for food, in a plain view of everybody, including his model girlfriend… fun plot development.
However, the ending was disturbing. Not the usual well awaited rescue of the group, maybe with a couple accidental death due to the jungle forest wildlife, but overall, a happy ending…
No! None of that.
At some point the two women: young model and the “captain” lady came across the luxury hotel on the island. Surprise! Just like that: civilization! Young girl is happy, dragging “the captain” back to the civilization…, but “the captain” is not so eager. She is lagging, saying she need to “wee-wee” before the walk in into the property. No other people are seen at that scene, only gate, some boats, some umbrellas and club music.
At that point I understand and presume that the old woman might have decided to get rid of the young woman. And sure enough, I was right, she sneaks quietly, carrying a huge rock, aiming from behind to the girl’s head. Her face is twisted in evil grimace. And boom! Nothing!
That was the ending, leaving it open-ended. There might or might not be a murder. Which at that point is irrelevant and seem to be absolutely absurd, yet understandable. Why would the old woman do that? The civilization is here. All she needs to do is to walk over through the gate. However, Abigail, the old woman, can’t let go of the power. Disturbing! She is choosing a power over a small group of people, even if it will last only for one more day. She does not care at that moment about the consequences of her actions, instead she chooses sweet power on deserted island over the return to civilization where she probably will be cleaning toilets again…
It would have been a disturbing movie with a dark ending, if it would not be for a parallel scene where a young man, the model character, is frantically running through the woods while the old hag is carrying death in her hands. He runs through the thick scraping bushes, tripping over the rocks, he runs hard because He felt something!!!
He felt!!! We will never find out if he makes it on time. Yet, even if he comes too late, being unable to prevent the murder, even then, the movie will no longer have the dark ending. That run through the woods showed us that in that handsome, even though sell-out for a moment body, the soul is still alive! Beautiful soul with feelings and intuition. It almost doesn’t matter anymore if he will save the girl from the murder, or not. That is no longer the point. The part of him, all of a sudden feeling that something wrong is going to happen, that part of him, his soul, his intuition made him run to the rescue. That is a hope… That hope for presence of a soul, divine part of human, uplifts the whole meaning of the movie to a higher, not dark movie level…